WRITER.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Drama, Family

Spoiler-Free section

Ever since reading the novel by Jodi Picoult that this movie is derived from, I have been looking at thrift stores for the DVD – I know, so old fashioned, streaming is the way to go now. I found the movie for a couple dollars at a local Goodwill.

Part of what made reading the novel a memorable experience was that after I read it, I passed it on to my grandma and she read it too. We discussed the story at length, especially the twist ending.

Thus, when I found the movie, I visited my grandma’s house and watched it with her. Our reactions to it were overall positive, and we certainly noticed the changes that had been made from the novel.

The internet reviews warned me to keep a box of tissues on hand, and we certainly did so, and I did cry some. Not as much as I had from reading Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid recently, but still a tearjerker.

The premise is this. Kate Fitzgerald was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia and was expected to die by age 5. Her parents and brother are not a genetic match for Kate, so her parents have another child through in-vitro fertilization to be a donor for Kate. Thus, Anna Fitzgerald is born, conceived entirely to be “spare parts” to save her sister from dying from cancer.

Anna believes that if Kate had been healthy, she would have just been another soul waiting in heaven to be attached to a new body. In other words, she was only born because Kate is sick.

First they take Anna’s umbilical cord blood, then marrow, and the final straw comes when Kate needs a new kidney. Anna, 11 years old in the movie (13 in the book), sues her parents for medical emancipation, explaining how she no longer wants to be a donor and wants to live her own life. She says she doesn’t want to be careful all her life and wants to do normal kid activities. But more than anything, she emphasizes that she wants the right to her own body.

Campbell Alexander, a lawyer, takes the case to court. In precedents, only kids 14 or older have successfully appealed for emancipation. Alexander’s 91% success rate (not 90, mind you, 91) works in his favor, but he has a steep slope to climb because Anna’s mother is also a lawyer and is personally invested.

The story the movie tells is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. It does not skirt around moral dilemmas or uncomfortable moments. The level of trauma that is caused when a daughter or sister is dying of cancer is examined in this film with stunning skill. The concept itself, of a savior sister whose wellbeing is sacrificed for another, is both creative and disturbing.

I was only somewhat surprised to find out that Jodi Picoult herself hated the movie. According to Picoult, she was thrown off the set after voicing her opinions about how the story should progress. She was angry that the ending was changed most of all, as were many of her fans.

Because of that, I feel a little guilty that I liked the movie better than the book. The book’s ending made me mad, and although provoking that kind of strong reaction is often a sign of good writing, it did not move me as much as the film adaptation. The movie ending made me cry instead of making me angry.

I fully recommend this movie for anyone who likes a drama with some heart. Continue reading to learn more, but only if you don’t mind spoilers for both the book and movie.

Spoiler time!

The book understandably went into more detail in certain aspects. One of my favorite details in the book was that every time someone asked Campbell Alexander what his service dog was for, he would give a different reason. In the movie he just said he had a metal lung and his dog kept him away from magnets, which was one of the good ones, but if you read the book you’ll get a lot more humorous quips. We don’t learn he has epilepsy until he actually has a seizure.

That was a small difference. There was a couple of major differences in how the character Jesse was depicted in the movie and the book. In the movie, Jesse has undiagnosed dyslexia for years before his parents notice because they are so absorbed in caring for Kate. They decide to send him away for a year to get special education after they figure it out, and he is devasted by this choice. None of this was in the book, but it added to the story so I didn’t mind.

In the book, Jesse committed acts of arson to get attention and deal with his unresolved emotions toward his family. He also to drinking and smoking as a way to cope. This was entirely skipped over in the movie. The worst he did in the movie was be out late of night and wonder how much trouble he would be in when he got home. Which was none, because his parents hadn’t even noticed that he had left. What bothers me is that at the very end, after the stunning climax and during the falling action in the movie, there is a line that says Jesse “turned his life around.” That made no sense in the context of the movie because besides being out past curfew at least once, he has done nothing wrong. There’s nothing to “turn around.”

Even if Jesse didn’t engage in delinquent behavior in the movie, there was a lot of tension in the family. The time that stands out the most is when the father takes Kate out of the hospital and to the beach on a doctor’s suggestion. Her mother throws a whole fit and says that her husband is killing her daughter by removing her from her sterile hospital room. He responds by saying he has followed her lead for over a decade and if she doesn’t allow them this beach day, he wants a divorce. Kate cries when her mother tries to force her to go back to the hospital, but in the end her father takes the family to the beach, and her mother joins later when she has calmed down.

One thing I thought the movie did well was the relationship between Taylor and Kate. Their romance was sweet, and even though I knew it would end tragically, I was invested. It reminded me of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green in that way, but that book came out a few years later. I’m glad they were at least able to enjoy the hospital prom together, and there were suggestions that they might have had sex as well. Taylor was such a kind and loving boyfriend that it made me tear up when Kate found out he died.

A touching scene that happened in the movie and the book was when Kate says she is “sick, tired, and ugly,” and in response her mother shaves her head. It is such a small thing and yet so meaningful.

Sara (the mother) was such a complicated character. Her fear and love for her child made her ferocious at times, yet I can’t judge her for most of it. But I can’t quite forgive her for the way she treats Anna and Jesse. She is unwilling to take no for an answer when Anna says she doesn’t want to give a kidney, and even goes back to being a lawyer just to try to make sure she has the right to force Anna to go through with the surgery. She emotionally manipulates Anna by asking if she wants her sister to die and telling her that is her responsibility if she keeps being selfish. It was honestly hard to watch a sweet girl like Anna being berated like that. A great line was spoken by Alexander. Sara insisted she was just standing up for Kate. And Alexander asked: “The real question is: who stands up for Anna?”

What I appreciated the most about this movie was the ending. Like in the book, the characters find out that Kate was the one who wanted Anna to ask for medical emancipation. There is obviously a lot of love between them and Anne would have probably went through with the surgery if Kate hadn’t asked her sister to “release” her.

Next, in the movie, Kate gives her mother a scrapbook and Sara spends one last night curled up beside her daughter after weeping, and Kate dies that night. It was tragic, yes, but it felt inevitable and fit with the rest of the movie. The rest of the family treasures their time with her, grieves, and begins to move on. Tissue time, of course.

In the book, right after Anna is medically emancipated, she rides with Alexander and there is a car crash. Anna is pronounced brain dead at the hospital and her lawyer tells the doctors to basically harvest her kidney to help Kate. Kate’s cancer is curbed and she lives on without Anna, who shortly afterward dies.

This. This is why the book made me so angry. It feel contrived and convenient beyond belief. It’s an unpopular opinion, I know, but I will stand by my assessment that the movie ending is better than the book.

Did you read or watch My Sister’s Keeper? If so, what were your thoughts on the movie versus the book? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!